ABSTRACT
It is the areas o f maintainability and testability that the Brite Euram III Framework IV project Monitoring ON-line Integrated Technologies for Operational Reliability (MONITOR) is based. The MONITOR consortium, shown in Table 1, is aimed at providing the tools by which the diagnostic o f a fault or the prognosis o f impending failure can be given automatically. In this context its objectives are to identify the challenges o f reducing the operating costs o f metallic & composite structures through the use o f integrated sensing technology. In doing so, it aims to quantify the performance potential o f the emerging damage detection technologies against system performance needs. Finally it aims to provide In-Service load monitoring technology, based on optical Bragg Grating sensors, that reduces the penalties traditionally associated with electrical sensors. The project does not attempt to improve the reliability o f the aircraft, or specifically the Airframe. It will not, for example, stop a metallic component cracking from fatigue.
